Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly confronted Vice President JD Vance over the vice president’s recent public criticism of Israel’s government during a private meeting in Washington on Tuesday, according to a report describing the discussion as candid and direct.
Axios reported that the one-on-one meeting took place at Blair House, with both Israeli and U.S. officials characterizing the exchange as unusually frank. The meeting followed months of increasingly public disagreements between the two leaders over U.S. policy toward Iran.
According to journalist Barak Ravid, a senior Israeli official said Netanyahu used the meeting to directly address Vance’s recent comments regarding Israel’s government and its position within the Republican Party.
The Israeli official described the discussion as “a frank and candid conversation,” while a U.S. official offered a similar assessment, saying simply, “The conversation was direct.”
Officials cited by Ravid said Netanyahu had grown frustrated with Vance’s repeated criticism in recent months. Among the issues raised were accusations from the vice president that the Israeli prime minister had encouraged opposition to the now-defunct U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, an agreement Vance had supported.
According to the report, Vance had also suggested that Netanyahu had not demonstrated sufficient loyalty to President Donald Trump, adding another point of tension between the two leaders.
The disagreements became increasingly public earlier this year as debate intensified over U.S. policy toward Iran.
In June, Vance sharply criticized Israeli officials who had spoken out against the Iran agreement. During those remarks, the vice president argued that Israeli leaders should “not be attacking the only powerful ally” the country has “anywhere left in the entire world.”
Netanyahu quickly rejected that characterization, responding that Israel had “many friends.”
The dispute continued into July when Vance appeared on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast. During the interview, which was released on July 15, the vice president claimed that some Israeli officials were working to steer the United States away from diplomacy with Iran and toward continued conflict.
“I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal,” Vance said during the podcast.
He went on to reference a Time article that he said had been sent to him by a friend, adding that it was “worth reading because it lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person, who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government.”
Those comments added to the growing friction between Vance and Netanyahu, culminating in Tuesday’s private meeting in Washington, where officials said the two leaders addressed their differences directly behind closed doors.
During the same Joe Rogan podcast appearance, Vance also alleged that convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had ties to “the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”
Despite the pointed exchanges in recent months, officials from both the United States and Israel characterized Tuesday’s meeting as an open and candid discussion, with both sides acknowledging that the conversation was direct as the leaders addressed their disagreements over Israel, Iran, and recent public statements.
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